Congratulations to Mike Elliott who won week #6 of our "Review an App, Win More Apps" contest. Mike has won a $50 iTunes gift card that can be redeemed for music and of course for more iPhone apps.
As a reminder, we've extended the contest through Monday, so get your reviews in by high noon. Unlike previous weeks, this week we'll be giving away a $200 gift card. That's plenty of apps, music or can even be used towards the purchase on an iPhone 3G. To enter, visit our review section and submit a review of any application or accessory. Reviews must be 100 words or more to be qualified.
Earthscape is a pretty amazing app, a virtual globe application that allows you to explore the earth in 3D featuring photo realistic images. Previously slotted at $9.95, the developer is offering Earthscape for free for a limited time.
THQ today released Star Wars "The Force Unleashed" for both iPhone and iPod touch. In "The Force Unleashed", you play Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice, trained by the menacing Sith Lord to hunt down the last of the Jedi.
Avatron Software's Air Sharing is billed as "the easiest way to take documents with you and view them on the go". Thanks to a generous introductory offer, Air Sharing is available for free from the App Store for the first two weeks, a savings of $6.99. With Air Sharing you can mount your iPhone or iPod touch as a wireless drive on any Mac, Windows or Linux computer. Simply drag and drop documents to your iPhone and take the files with you on the go. This is a limited time offer, so go get it. See what our members are saying about Air Sharing in the forums.
Stone Design has released Twittelator Pro version 1.3 offer a host of features over the standard version, in addition to fixing a bug that plagues iPhone Software Update 2.1.
First and foremost, iPhone 2.1 firmware will be out on Friday, September 12. Steve said it's a big update that includes many bug fixes, addressing dropping calls, crashing apps, long-backups, and battery life. And it's free to all owners! I am quite excited for this update, and have my fingers crossed that it will work as promised and that the issues many users, including me, have been experiencing are addressed.
Kevin Rose was spot on with iTunes 8, including the new grid-like view and Genius functionality. HD TV shows has also come to the iTunes store, though they are only viewable on your computer or through your Apple TV - there goes putting HD shows on my iPhone to output to our home entertainment center! Shoot!
iPods continue to kick ass in marketshare with 73.4%, with "Other" players a distant second at 15.4%. The iPod Classic is now offered in one size only - 120GB at the same price as the previous 80GB model, $249. The new iPod Nano is indeed like the leaked pictures that have been circulating on the internet - tall and skinny with a curved front and back. It features a new UI and has an accelerometer like the iPod Touch and iPhone, allowing you to turn it sideways to switch automatically to cover mode view. And the new Genius functionality works right on the Nano without needing to be connected to iTunes, and shaking the Nano puts it in Shuffle mode.
A nice accessory upgrade is a pair of headphones that have functionality similar to that of the iPhone's - a control button that allows you to double-click to get to the next song, and a microphone that will work with the built-in voice recording function. And it has volume controls! I sure hope those will work on the iPhone too.
Snow Patrol is expected to release the first ever interactive iPhone album application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The application will be available through iTunes and allow fans album artwork, lyrics, behind the scenes images and more. Snow Patrol's fifth album "A Hundred Million Suns" will release next month.
